To those who doubt the massacres in Rojava – Part One

ANF – News Desk 14.08.2013 –  Last week, at least 50 Kurdish civilians were killed and 350 others were kidnapped by jihadists in two villages of the region of Aleppo. To avenge the heavy defeat suffered by Kurdish fighters, jihadists are diving deeper into crimes against humanity, committing barbaric acts.In the villages of Til Hasil and Til Aran, in the region of Aleppo, lived about 40 thousand Kurds. Many young people including women and children were abducted by groups linked to al-Qaeda after the attack on Til Hasil and Til Aran between 28 July and 2 August 2013.

Two women with few children and a boy managed to escape from the hands of

al-Nusra Front and reached Afrin. Now they are free, but their wounds are still burning. Survivors of the massacre have told the agency ANHA what they saw and experienced. One of the survivors of the massacre, Arife Semo Abdulkadir, said: “They killed my son in front of my eyes and they wounded my other son. Half of the people were killed and many were injured. What can I say now? They are traitors … We are in the month of Ramadan … they have no faith and no creed. What can I say …? ”

Necah Bozan, another mother, said “they arrested my eldest son, killed one of my grandchildren while another one we still do not know where he is. We lost touch with them, they arrested all those who were there … now I have left only my injured children. These (referring to the militants of al-Nusra Front) are traitors, they are thieves and murderers”.

The Kurdish mother from Til Aran continues: “My son had gone to work. And to protect the honour of his village he returned. Members of al-Nusra Front came. They came from far away places, they are not local, they came to plunder our rich country. And they killed my son who has now become a martyr. They also arrested the women of our village. They said that they will take the men to cut off their heads. And they said that the women were “legitimately” their property. We were more than 40 families in the village but now we no longer have news of the other”.

She tries to be strong and tell us about the cruelty but the words get stuck in her throat, she covers her face with the hand so we don’t see she is crying … and continues: “I have not been able to take the body of my son and I do not know where he will be buried. I do not know his grave. Are these followers of Islam? Are these human beings? Had they not come to fight against the regime? They cut off heads and they told us to come and watch … in the shops of the village they showed the heads they had cut off. Are human beings behaving in this way?

Muhammed Ibrahim Cuma and Ato Ato are two boys from Til Aran. In the days of the massacre they were able to escape from the village, but were arrested by Liwa Tewhid during their escape and deported to Nikeriye, a district of Al Bab where they were handed over to the brigades of al-Nusra Front.

Cuma is 22 years old, in the village of Nikeriye he was tortured in a very cruel way. He told us what he experienced: “they struck me with thick cables all parts of our body. They beat us with their fists in the head and eyes. We were told that we would be sentenced to death and that they would cut off our head. They staged a mock court and then we were handed over to the brigades of al-Nusra Front”.

“They took us to a barracks run by al-Nusra Front on the way to Til Hasil and they put us in a room. We were told that our heads would be cut off the next day. That night we were tortured. We were told that the whole family of Ato is part of the PKK. ‘We will sever (in the true sense of the word) all the roots of your family. You Kafir! (Infidels)’. I want to stress that we had observed Ramadan until that day. They use the name of Islam but these people and their actions have nothing to do with Islam …”

Cuma Ato went on to say that a commander of al-Nusra Front told him that the they after they would be killed. “I did not want to give myself up like this in their hands. I saw a window at the top and from that I managed to escape”.

Ato said that al-Nusra Front has decided to massacre the families of Kalo, Bisar, and Hawa.